


A story of long ago

by Searofyr



Series: Most blessed and most cursed [1]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: Cults, Gen, Green Pact (Elder Scrolls), Pirates, maormer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:27:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27350440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Searofyr/pseuds/Searofyr
Summary: Riacil tells a story from before he became Vestige and Pact hero – a story of bad decisions, a Green Pact cult, and Maormer pirates.
Relationships: Male Bosmer Vestige & Lorkhan, Male Bosmer Vestige & Original Male Maormer Character(s)
Series: Most blessed and most cursed [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2039801
Kudos: 5





	1. An attempt at escape

Really? That’s it? I’m never drinking with Necromancers again. You’re spoilt milk-drinkers, that‘s what you are, no offense, that’s a good thing. Good for you.

No, really. You complain about how bad you’ve had it in your cults, and how you feel bad about yourselves, and that’s all?

Me? No, I’m not a Necromancer. I’m not a Daedric cultist either. Never was, either. My guy’s always been Lorkhan. No. I was with the Brotherhood of the Green. Never heard of them? Good. It’s worse than all of them. Green Pact.

Of course you’re laughing.

You want to hear? I’m going to need a lot more mead for that. A lot more. 

No, no rotmeth, pass on the rotmeth. Yeah I used to drink it. I was in a Green Pact cult, of course I drank it. But you see, our leader, Carthes, was not very fond of traitors. But he was very fond of rotmeth. And that in turn marred my own fondness for rotmeth.

See, this is one of _those_ Bosmer stories. If you can’t stomach that, better switch to another table.

Yeah, of course that one was on purpose.

Alright. All set? Then let me tell you about my stupid youth, and about Gemorin and our flight from our cult.

Gemorin, just like me, was young and stupid, that’s why everyone joins these things, except for the ones that lead them. And it dawned on both of us that it hadn’t been the smartest decision we’d ever made. It dawned on a couple of others, too. They tried to leave. They had a tendency to come back as dinner. Carthes _really_ didn’t like traitors. But he liked the old rites, or what he thought they were. He called us a tribe and all, too, just to be justified in setting all that up.

I kept my head low, or I tried, but well, I’ve got a hard time staying quiet, and I made a comment here, a jab there, and soon I was getting the eye for disrupting morale. Nothing more than that yet. But I knew I had to watch out. But it was hard. So I tried to play loyal in practical things. Avoided the known discontent ones. Still I kept worrying when I’d be next.

Then Gemorin shows up in my pod one night and whispers how we have to flee, and he stole some gold so we could get down to the harbor and get passage somewhere else, anywhere but there.

I was torn. But he was convincing. And I really wanted out. Thought that was my chance. So I said yes, and we snuck out, past the patrols.

It was bad from the start. I’m not the best at sneaking and being subtle, and then Carthes had these fucking stranglers placed all around the territory, and of course one of them got me. Got a nasty sting, too. Hurt like… I wanted curse down all of Valenwood, but I had to be quiet.

No, I can’t show you, I’ve had a kind of magical circumstance happen that took the scars out. But it was there for a while.

So I had that happen, and Gemorin? That idiot took a bright yellow leather scarf with him, memento from his mother. When you’re trying to get out of that kind of thing, nothing matters, not your mother’s memory either. But he didn’t get that.

And then the wind picked up. Sky was dark, really dark, perfect time to flee unseen, but the air was strangely heavy, and that wind was unnatural. But we pushed on. I was shivering, and he wanted to give the scarf to me. I said, “Are you crazy? I’m not wearing a bright yellow scarf while we’re fleeing! And you shouldn’t either.”

He went on. So we went on. I was having a worse and worse feeling about all this, something was very wrong, and there was this creeping-up dread, and then I was hit like I’d been poisoned and I couldn’t move anymore. Frozen into spot, total panic. I refused to go on. 

It wasn’t my decision anymore. It wasn’t. I couldn’t go on, and that was it. We were still in cult territory, too. There’d be more patrols out there.

Gemorin looked stuck between two places but then decided for the one where he’d get out. He gave me that damned scarf, told me to remember him and pray to my trickster god for him. I didn’t want the scarf. Did I mention already it was bright yellow? And I was so scared that the only one I prayed for to my trickster god was myself.

And you know, he always delivers, one way or another.

When Gemorin was out of eyesight, the feeling of dread was vanishing slowly, and I could start to move again. Figured I’d be going back then, coward that I was. Chance lost.

Close to the settlement, that unnatural wind picked up force once more and hurled that scarf right into a treetop. Right in sight, too.

Got that feeling of dread again. Suddenly panicked from that fucking tree and just hurried inside faster, scarf be damned. That tree was terrifying at that moment. At least with that wind there were no more patrols, so sneaking back in was easier. Got into my pod and cleaned up as well as I could and hid under the blankets, and couldn’t fully calm down till morning.

Of course in the early morning hours they all knew Gemorin was gone. Carthes found me in my pod, I was still under the blankets, and I was fucking terrified. And he suspected me. Of course he did.

So I had to play it off. The only stupid way I thought of at that moment. “Yeah, I know he’s gone,” I said. “Fucking idiot wanted me to come with him.”

“And?”

“What do you think I am? I let him go, but…”

“Are you shaking?” Carthes crouched down in front of me, looked straight into my eyes. “Are those tears I see?”

“Fuck, yeah they are, so?” I snapped at him. “I’m pissed. He was supposed to stay. It was supposed to be…”

Ridiculous, all the way, but he bought it. He grinned. “You really need to get better taste next time, Riacil.”

“Yeah, I know that. I’ll get over it. Just give me a moment. I’ll be fine.”

“And your bad mood in the past weeks would not have been from being… dissatisfied with us?”

No, he wasn’t buying it enough yet. “No, it wasn’t, what do you think I am, I’m not like that. I didn’t want this to happen. And I was pissed this wasn’t going anywhere either. Alright?”

“I want to believe you, Riacil, I really want to. But see…”

So fuck it all. I wasn’t going to end up like that. “You’re doubting me, really? Who do you think put that scarf there? Ugh, that’s what you get for trying not to look like the traitor, cause I am in a way, can’t be loyal to two sides, but I was pissed.”

His eyes grew sharp. “What scarf?”

They hadn’t seen. Maybe all the better, I thought, and decided to milk it. “What scarf? Are you serious? Why do I even bother with you people?”

I heard a dark chuckle outside my pod. Carthes got up and a small group was assembled there, listening in on everything.

“What scarf?” Carthes repeated.

Now I had to get up, too, cause he had. “The fucking scarf, the bright yellow fucking scarf of his that’s hanging in the treetop right outside the settlement. Was his mother’s, you know. He gave it to me. Stupid. If that didn’t tip anyone off, I don’t know what would. Needn’t have bothered, obviously, if no one even found it. Guess he’s off who knows where now. Don’t you have patrols? Or was that wind too much? Was pretty loud and scary, I’ll say.”

Carthes frowned and mustered me. “Check the tree outside for a yellow scarf,” he snapped into the round without taking his eyes off me. “So you’d sell him out…”

“Can’t sell someone out who’s leaving the tribe,” I said. “I was pissed. Alright? Not my finest moment, and I could’ve raised more of a fuss right away, yeah, I’ll…”

“It’s there,” came a voice from outside. “Right there in the treetop. Didn’t even notice. Damn.”

Carthes frowned, looked me over once more. “So you’re a coward with bad taste, but you’re loyal after all.”

“You’ve always known that, come on,” I said.

“Perhaps. Perhaps. Seems I was wrong about you. I’ll forgive your lack of action given your… distress.” He sneered, but when he did that, you were off the hook. “But don’t worry. He’s not getting who knows where. The other patrol,” he raised his voice, “the one that was actually there, doing their work, not scared of storms like children, caught him. Just at the border to our territory.”

I needn’t tell you what that felt like, you’re not dumb. I stood as straight as I could, tried to look just grim and like I accepted the facts.

Carthes nodded and turned to leave. “Prepare him,” he told those waiting outside. “Those who were on last night’s patrol around the pods get the honour.”

As he was leaving, and they were still looking me over, I knew I had to say something. Something that’d put things back to normal. Not get me liked, perhaps, but that’d end this.

“We really should invest in a load of salt, or someone here should learn frost magic, at the rate we’re going.”

And that did it. A few snorts and chuckles, and normality was back. They scattered.

No, I didn’t get out that time. That took a better effort and a lot of help. Different story.

Why are you all looking at me like that? That’s what a proper cult does to you. Now can I have more mead?


	2. Make them mad

You’re really all back again? Now I’m embarrassed. Well alright, not much to do out here, is there?

So… Really?

Alright. The story of how I got out.

Where do I start? I’ll spare you most of the logistics and the mer turf politics, I don’t think anyone cares about that, right? Yeah, thought so. So just the basics.

So our illustrious group had taken over some territory in the woods close to the coast, and Carthes had just gotten it into his head to get in on harbour business, take some influence, get some income, I’m sure you all know how that goes.

Problem was, that harbour was also a favourite anchoring place for a bunch of Maormer pirates, and they didn’t like those ambitions one bit. So they got a bit aggressive. And with Carthes’s extraordinary diplomatic skills and, you know, his peace-making nature, spreading harmony wherever he went, we soon had an actual battle on our hand.

There was a prelude, preparations, staring each other down across the distance, that kind of thing.

By that time, Carthes actually listened to me sometimes, and I somehow convinced him to let the uninvolved locals clear out if they wanted, cause who are you going to influence and get an income from if they’re all dead?

He pointed out it could just be our harbour, and we’d take the money directly, but I asked how many of us were skilled in running a harbour, and he looked over his tribe of useful idiots and conceded we could make that a mid-term goal. So those locals who didn’t have too much stupid honour to flee did just that, and that place got a whole lot quieter.

Carthes positioned us for battle and placed me further back, on a little hill with trees all around. He put his hand on my shoulder. “You’re a coward, you can shoot, you can use that head of yours sometimes, and you’re loyal. That means you’re too valuable to die on the front there. Show them Y’ffre’s wrath from back here, keep an eye on the situation, and do what you must. And don’t get killed.”

Generous, that was. And as close to approval as one got from him. Of course his approval was the kind you paid a heavy price for.

But I nodded. “Will do,” I said.

Then it was both hands on my shoulders. “You left your family so you could truly live like our people should. You’re our brother now. Together we’ll make history today. We’ll take this harbour from those fucking heretical snake pirates.”

I agreed with that, and he was off, and I saw and heard him make variations of that speech to the rest of them.

I readied my bow and the frankly ridiculous stack of arrows I had with me, piling them all up in sets, and then I looked out at the shore, the ships, the ‘fucking heretical snake pirates’.

I didn’t like it. Sure, I was as safe here as I was going to get for that kind of battle, which is never safe. But that wasn’t what I was going for. So I took my complaint to my patron, as usual.

‘Lorkhan’, I thought, ‘they have snakes, and I’m back here.’

I thought there was something wrapping around my waist, something snake-like but not actually there. Then a whisper in my mind: ‘Make them mad.’

I reached up to pet the source, but that didn’t do anything, and it was time to get to work.

A few skirmishes were happening close to the water’s edge, and I shot a few arrows in that direction, but that was no good. Boring. Expected. Right?

‘Down’, the whisper said.

I crouched down behind my hill. Nothing came flying. I stayed down anyway.

‘You don’t know how to make fire yet.’ A statement, still in a whisper, but very sure. ‘Gather some arrows. Hold them. Close your eyes.’

So I gathered as many as I could hold in a bundle, and closed my eyes. Then there was this heat everywhere, and in my fingertips, and that crackling coming from the arrow tips, and I knew without looking they were on fire.

‘A one-time gift.’ The whisper was weak.

‘Thank you,’ I thought back at him. ‘Sorry I was so dense that last time. You tried to warn me, gave me all that stuff to work with… That paralysing poison trick was fantastic, and saved me, thank you. And sorry for making you need that. Thanks for caring enough. I…’

‘I’ve chosen you. You’ve chosen me.’

I opened my eyes and prepared the first shot, trying not to set myself or the bow on fire or put out the flames. ‘You sure know a lot better what you’re doing.’

‘I just have more experience.’ A wispy breath by my ear, and the voice was gone.

Time to make them mad.

I didn’t want to hit their ships cause I wanted to get on one, but the docks and the buildings all around and the stuff they’d already unloaded were fair game, and there was enough Altmer influence around to give us a lot of very flammable material to work with.

The fire brought some life into the fight on both sides. People from both parties were cursing me, one side by name, the other anonymously. Otherwise no difference.

Once in a while I hit someone with a regular arrow to make it look like I was still doing my actual work. The docks were a wall of fire at some point, and the fight moved inwards towards me. Partially good, partially not. Depended on who got to me first, the Maormer or my own people to stop what I was doing.

Since I’m sitting here, you’re probably guessing it wasn’t my people.

I didn’t actually see him coming. I was so focused on my next shot, and then someone grabbed me by the scruff of my shirt and picked me up like I was a kitten or something. “And what do you think you’re doing here?”

Yeah, not a dignified situation, but there’s nothing dignified about trying to get rescued. Ever. Better to just forget all about that idea.

So here was one of those ‘fucking heretical snake pirates’ up close. Tall. I mean, really tall. My grandfather’s an Altmer, and I was always tiny next to him, but this was another thing altogether. And everything was white and clear. The skin, the eyes. Clear eyes. White and different, for sure, but not shifty and fake-soft like Carthes’s could get sometimes when he was being the biggest threat to you.

And that thought reminded me of why I was here.

“You have to get me out,” I said.

He stared. “Well,” he said, “I’ll admit that’s not the kind of greeting I was expecting.”

“I know,” I said, “but you’re here, finally. Get me out of here. Take me along, I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll do anything.”

His eyes narrowed. He was still dangling me in the air, yeah.

“Can we get into cover?” I asked. “It’s no good if they see us conversing too much here.”

“Tell me why I should spare you, much less save you, after you’ve killed part of our crew and set our cargo on fire.”

“I spared the ships.”

“That you did.” He dropped me, and I scrambled behind the hill.

He rammed a staff into the ground right next to my head. Then he sat down leisurely next to me. “And now? Anything, you say? That’s a word many people come to regret.”

“Look, if you guys can refrain from eating me, that’s already better than those people here.”

The Maormer was looking like he had no idea what to do with any of this information, which I can’t blame him for. “And why would they eat you?” he asked. “It looks to me as if you were placed in a privileged position.”

“For now,” I said. “That can turn anytime. Right now I appear valuable to him. Our leader, I mean. Carthes. Guy with the pelts all over and the bone necklaces. And that’s only cause I’ve been acting like I was on his side for a while, and I hate myself enough already. I’ll slip up, or just hit my limit, or he’ll just have a mood swing, could be anything.”

He mustered me.

“Please,” I said, “take me along. I’ll do anything, I’m serious. Can’t be worse than this. I don’t want to end up like all the others, and I don’t want to end up like… more of what I’m ending up like already.”

He slowly shook his head. But not in a ‘no’ sort of way. More the ‘what did I get myself into’ kind of way. “All the others, huh.”

“So many dead already.”

“Eaten, too?”

“Of course.”

He pursed his lips. “You really made me angry out there, you know.”

“That was the idea. I was stuck back here, and…”

“You want me to get you out of here convincingly. How roughly can I handle you before you complain?”

“Don’t kill me. I don’t care. Do what you have to. Long as it works.”

I was expecting him to knock me out, or even get out a blade or something. Cause I wasn’t thinking.

He stood up and made this beckoning motion, just with his fingertip, and then this giant sea serpent appeared next to him. It rose up, made itself as tall as him, and stared me down.

“No turning back?” the Maormer asked.

“No turning back,” I said.

“What’s your name?”

“Riacil.”

“Riacil,” he repeated. He made another of those tiny motions, and the serpent was on me and I was wrapped up and couldn’t move, and it looked into my eyes and bared its fangs. Now, I love serpents, but that was just pure terror I felt.

“Nilenwe,” the Maormer said. “Don’t kill him. Riacil. I’m Sindir. Welcome to my crew.”

The serpent head came down and it bit straight into my throat.

I was fast losing consciousness, but I felt myself getting picked up and carried away, and I heard his voice declaring, “You’d feed on our own. In turn, your own will feed our serpents.”

That would still be better than my own people, I thought, before I was out.


	3. Diet considerations

That’s what you want to know? Sure, I’ll tell you. That started… Actually, while we’re on the topic, I could use some more ale, this stuff is really good.

Alright. It started right after I got on the ship. Well, not right after. Right after, I was out for good long time; when I woke up, we were already long out at sea. And after that, I spent a day or so emptying my stomach – no, not cause of the sea, the sea’s alright for me. The poison.

That was actual snake poison. She actually injected that. Just a lower dose that wouldn’t kill me or mess me up permanently. Just enough to make me look dead to anyone around, and to people who knew exactly what a freshly dead person looked like. Like, say, a cult that was enthusiastic about the Green Pact.

Nilenwe was a precise little snake; she knew what she was doing. Amazing, right? I thought so, too.

I didn’t think the aftereffects were so amazing though at the time, I tell you that.

The other crew members were first irritated and then amused with me.

Irritated for all the damage I’d caused, and I’d killed some of their own, too, though mostly from another ship’s crew, I was lucky there. And cause their captain had picked me up and made the others of my group even angrier.

But that’d turned out for the best, I heard then. A guy in a lot of pelts with bone necklaces had attacked Sindir, and been cut down. Then the rest of them had lost motivation and scattered.

So that’s why the crew members were only irritated and not outright hating me.

Amused cause they got used to the sight of me scrambling up to the railing to get rid of more snake poison.

When the sun was starting to set, it got better. That’s when they started to treat me normally. Like I belonged there.

I was confused till one of them bothered to explain: “You survived that,” he said. “Guess you’re stuck here now.”

“So that’s common then?” I asked.

He laughed. Laughed and laughed. “You don’t know the first thing, do you, boy? Yeah. And you got it bad. Nilenwe gives the heavy doses. Some of the other ones, they’re more cautious. They get it’s symbolic. Nilenwe? She won’t kill you, but she’ll come as damn close as she pleases. We thought with a wood elf, she was sure going to get it wrong, and we’d be throwing you overboard before the day was over. But here you are. And not a single complaint all day.”

That was something to process. I was light-headed, too. But I told him, “I’ve promised Sindir not to complain as long as he doesn’t kill me and as long as this works and he gets me out of there. He kept word, so I try not to. But I’ll say this much, this snake packs a punch.”

“That she does, that she does. I was one of her victims, I know what it’s like. I’ll get you to the captain if you’re done here.” He pointed at the railing.

“For now,” I said. “I think.”

Sindir looked me over, nodded like he’d done good work and was pleased with it, and made me sit down in his cabin. So I sat. And was dizzy again immediately.

“So. What do you want to eat?”

I just stared at him.

“Look at you. Can’t have you blown overboard by the first breeze that comes along, can I?”

“That’s reasonable,” I said.

“Good that you agree,” he said. “So what do you want? We don’t have any fresh meat on board, thanks to a certain someone who had to play with fire around the docks. But we’ve got salted. And we can always catch something from the sea.”

“You’d do that? Just…” It was confusing. “For me?”

He waved it off. “No trouble at all. Besides, it’s Nilenwe doing most of the work. So. What do you want? Fish?”

I thought about it for a moment, but you can’t think too long about that kind of thing if you’re going to do it. “Actually, do you have something made of plants?”

He paused and then grinned. “Sure do, bread and stew. Nasrand makes a mean one. But after today, I feel obligated to ask you: Have you ever eaten anything made of plants at all?”

“Never.”

“Never, huh.”

“My grandfather – he’s an Altmer – he wanted us to, he found our habits barbaric. Of course. But the rest of my family didn’t listen. And after that…”

“Altmer grandfather, is it? That where your name is from? Sounds Altmeri.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Anyway, his opinion couldn’t count cause he didn’t like my choice of deity and so…”

“Y’ffre? What, too Bosmer or too provincial or something?”

“Lorkhan.”

Sindir grinned again. “That’d do it.”

“Yeah. That’s how I ended up in that stupid group, too. Rebellion and all. Really fucking ridiculous. Anyway there, no way.”

“Now I’ve done my reading, and I’ve been around these parts enough. Some of you guys eat plants that are not from the Valenwood, right?”

“Oh yeah, some do. But Carthes didn’t believe in nuance or grey areas. He’d say, compromise and technicalities are the first steps of a traitor away from where he should be.”

Sindir sighed a sigh of distaste. “Well,” he said, “let’s try not to make you sick right away again. If you’ve never had plants, that’ll happen anyway for a few weeks, but have some fish on the side. Settle in here, I’ll be back.”

I grinned. “Compromise?”

“Just that.”

That night, I dreamed of the Ooze.

Woke up, desperate, terrified, sat up, took it up with my patron.

“Lorkhan,” I whispered into the room, surrounded by sleeping pirates. Stupid maybe, but it felt like something I had to say out loud. “I was born under the sign of the Serpent cause you picked me. You threatened the Warrior, and won, and I’m yours. Y’ffre didn’t protect me from those people. You did. Most, most effectively, and I thank you so much. And more than ever, I’m yours. Now. Protect me from Y’ffre, too, and from the Ooze, will you? I need you strong enough to protect me. And you can’t drop me now. I’m all out of fall-back options, and it’s through my own decisions and with your help.”

There was that ghostly wrap around my waist from earlier again.

I’ve come to associate it with safety. That earlier time at the hill, even Nilenwe then, who poisoned me but got me out that way. Snake wrap means things will be alright somehow.

So I relaxed into that and lay back down, saw from the corner of my eye that someone had been watching me, but I didn’t care. They could know. I could sleep.


	4. A name

Noticed, did you? Yeah.

Sure, I’ll tell you that, too. And I’ll need something stronger than this ale when I’m through. You got something? Good.

I mentioned how Nilenwe’s name sounded as Altmeri as mine.

Sindir nodded. “She’s named after an Altmer lady. Well. Not much of a lady, that was, in the traditional sense. She had the whole crew by the balls. Toughest woman I’ve ever known.”

I grinned. “An old flame?”

“Yes and no. Yes, but also more than that, she picked me up when I was down on my luck and made me fit to be on a crew like that. Different ship, different people, long ago.”

“Does she know you named a deadly snake after her?”

“No. She’s dead. Died in a raid.”

Well, damn, right? What do you say there? I said I was sorry, he said it was alright, and we changed the topic. Partly. Got to talk about that sea serpent magic they did.

I tried to talk him into teaching me, he tried to evade, I insisted, he asked why. I said I’m part of the crew, and that he’d said so himself, and I’d survived the poison. He asked why I wanted to so much.

I told him I was born under the sign of the Serpent and what that meant to me and how their magic seemed like it’d connect me with Lorkhan more.

He pursed his lips at that. “The men have been talking about that,” he said. “Overheard you speaking. Thought they saw some ghost snake around. They talk about how you forsook Y’ffre for that, and how you’re eating our food, too.”

“Is that bad?” I asked.

“That’s not bad. Makes you look serious about being here, even if your choice is… Eh, I don’t mind. If that’s where you make your connections and the men accept you, that’s good enough for me.”

“So you’ll teach me?”

“Now where did I say that?” But he had humour in his voice. That’s where the chances lay.

“If you teach me your serpent magic, I’ll name a snake after you,” I said.

He snorted. “Will you now? Well, only do that after I’m dead, otherwise it’s bad luck.”

“Huh. Didn’t know that,” I said. “Then I won’t. You saved me, you can’t die before me.”

“I saved you, I can’t have you die before me. Would be a waste and a damned shame.”

“You’re a Maormer. Your life expectancy’s better than mine.”

“I’m a pirate. My life expectancy’s a joke.”

“So am I.”

“A joke?”

“A pirate. The other, too, maybe.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You’re actually staying?”

“I thought that was the deal,” I said.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He was probably done with the conversation many times over. “Honestly, I thought I’d get you back on your feet and drop you off somewhere.”

“Oh.”

“Is that disappointment I’m seeing?”

It was a generous offer. I’d be freed without even any long-term consequences. Just for free, except for a few weeks of deck scrubbing until we got somewhere. But… I looked at him. “Of course that’s disappointment. Generosity of your offer none withstanding. And it is extreme generosity, I know. But if I could have my pick, I’d take my generosity in other areas.”

“You really want to stay, do you?”

“I do. Can I?”

He looked me over, up and down, and up again, and looked pretty amused at it. “Alright then. Pirate. Tiny wood elf pirate. Why not? And I reckon I’ll have to teach you the magic then.”

I was just beaming at him. And I said, “Then in the case of you dying before me, which I hope won’t come to pass, I’ll name a snake after you.”

He shook his head, but he was grinning. “We have a deal.”

So that’s why. Yeah, I learned. And this little guy’s Sindir.

I picked him up in Abah’s Landing when I was freshly stranded there, some shady salesman had him in a tiny cage. Seemed like the right thing to do. He’s a sep adder, not a sea serpent, but the original Sindir didn’t hold it against me that I wasn’t born a sea elf either. Figured I should pass on the favour.


End file.
